You might be unaware that this is based on a comic book in the US that was published in 2003, just a few months after 28 Days Later came out in the US, but originally plotted and sketched long before that. So in reality it's a coincidence, and anyway the hospital angle is the only significant similarity between the two.

True about the comic book (which is mint), but with regards originality, rather than debate who came first, people tend to look at the body of work that is currently published and available in a given venue.

My issue with originality here is the types of zombies used here seem similar to those in other notable successes. The survival scenario is similar, action scenes, gore, ditto.

It'd have been nice to have seen something done a little different from the norm. Even if this predates the establishment of the norm. Maybe we yet will.

You might be unaware that this is based on a comic book in the US that was published in 2003, just a few months after 28 Days Later came out in the US, but originally plotted and sketched long before that. So in reality it's a coincidence, and anyway the hospital angle is the only significant similarity between the two. Well, that and all the fucking zombies.

True about the comic book (which is mint), but with regards originality, rather than debate who came first, people tend to look at the body of work that is currently published and available in a given venue.

My issue with originality here is the types of zombies used here seem similar to those in other notable successes. The survival scenario is similar, action scenes, gore, ditto.

It'd have been nice to have seen something done a little different from the norm. Even if this predates the establishment of the norm. Maybe we yet will.

I don't know if you noticed it, but it kind of looked like one of the zombies in Atlanta - he had long hair and several closeups - was a little more cognizant than the others, and rather than looking merely hungry or crazy, he looked angry and slightly calculating.

I mention it because in the 'This Season on The Walking Dead feature' after the episode, his face popped up a couple more times, almost like he's a zombie leader or has something personal against the main guy....just a thought. Hope it's something like that, but I would expect something like that would have been in the comic.

But the degree to which a zombie maintains its cognitive function, humanity, personality, etc., has been thoroughly explored already. We can look all the way back to Georgie Boy's early work, to more recent doofers, such as the book Breathers - A Zombie's Lament, or the podcast We're Alive, to see the idea being explored.

I agree, it's a promising aspect of the show, but it isn't really something you could claim to make it stand out or be different.

Some might argue that this is bang out of order and that zombies need to be standardised (much like vampires are), otherwise they're just random monsters.

I guess the one thing that could differentiate from most of what has come before it is that it's a series, and should it have an extended run, it has the opportunity to develop its human characters to a much greater degree than previous examples of the genre. The zombies could end up being incidental, much as the mob was in The Sopranos.